Before you start

OCPM registration
Employment contract
Residence permit, G permit or legitimation card
An AVS number, issued through your employer

Step-by-step

1
Expect withholding at source
Holders of a B or L permit without a Swiss spouse or settlement permit, and frontaliers working in Geneva, are taxed through payroll at a cantonal scale. Nothing is due from you at the point of payment.
Via employerWho: Your employer
2
Check your commune's centimes additionnels before you sign a lease
The cantonal decree fixing communal rates for the year is published annually. Moving one tram stop can shift several percent of net income, and the rates change.
OnlineWho: You
3
Decide whether to request an ordinary assessment
Residents taxed at source can request a taxation ordinaire ultérieure to claim real deductions — third-pillar contributions, childcare, actual travel and meal costs, mortgage interest. Above a set income threshold it becomes compulsory.
OnlineWho: YouBy 31 March of the following year
4
Frontaliers: consider quasi-résident status, carefully
If at least 90% of your worldwide gross income — both spouses combined, if married — is taxable in Switzerland, you can request the same deductions a resident gets. The request is made for each tax year separately and by 31 March.
OnlineWho: YouBy 31 March of the following year
5
Use the third pillar, and note the new catch-up rule
Contributions to a 3a pension are deducted from taxable income up to an annual cap — CHF 7,258 for 2026 if you are in an occupational pension scheme. From 2026 it is possible for the first time to buy back missed years, going back up to ten, but only if the current year is already paid in full.
OnlineWho: You
6
International civil servants: file only if someone else in the household has income
Your organisation salary is exempt from federal, cantonal and communal tax. But a working spouse without an exemption card is taxed normally, and Swiss real estate you own privately is generally taxable regardless of your card.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Residence, G permit or legitimation card
Annual salary certificate from your employer
AVS number
Proof of deductions if requesting an ordinary assessment

Things most newcomers don’t know

Geneva taxes its cross-border commuters; Vaud and Basel do not. Same country, opposite rule.

Geneva stayed outside the 1983 France-Switzerland cross-border agreement. Commuters into Geneva are taxed at source here, and the canton remits 3.5% of their gross wage bill to Ain and Haute-Savoie. Commuters into Vaud, Basel-Stadt or Basel-Landschaft are instead taxed in France, with France paying Switzerland 4.5%. Advice written for one is wrong for the other.

Source: France-Switzerland 1973 Geneva arrangement and the 1983 agreement

Quasi-résident status is not automatically a win in Geneva, because it pulls in your worldwide wealth.

Requesting an ordinary assessment as a frontalier lets you claim real deductions instead of the flat allowances built into the withholding scale. But it also brings your worldwide assets into a canton with a serious wealth tax. For a commuter who owns a French house outright, the deductions can be swallowed whole. Model both before filing.

Source: Canton of Geneva — determining quasi-résident status

From 1 January 2026, telework by French-resident commuters is governed by a permanent 40% rule.

An amendment to the France-Switzerland double tax treaty entered into force on 24 July 2025 and applies from 2026. Up to 40% of annual working time may be worked remotely — including a maximum of ten days of missions in the residence state or a third country — without changing where the salary is taxed. Employers must now report each employee's telework rate.

Source: State Secretariat for International Finance — entry into force of the amendment

The 3a catch-up buy-back is genuinely new and easy to miss in your first Swiss years.

Until now an unused 3a year was gone forever. From 2026 you can retroactively fill gaps for up to ten prior years — the first eligible gap being 2025 — but only one past year at a time and only once the current year is fully funded. For someone who arrived mid-career this is a large, one-off deduction that nobody will prompt you about.

Source: Federal third-pillar rules on retroactive purchases

Common mistakes to avoid

Applying advice written for Vaud or Basel frontaliers to a Geneva job — the taxing state is different.
Requesting quasi-résident status without modelling the Geneva wealth tax on worldwide assets.
Missing the 31 March deadline for an ordinary assessment or quasi-résident request, which is not extended.
Choosing a commune on rent alone and ignoring a centimes additionnels spread worth several percent of income.
Reading second-pillar pension deductions on your payslip as tax rather than as your own deferred savings.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.